llandrew
Junior Member
- Aug 8, 2010
- 139
- 125
What's up all - I figured I'd start a thread on one of these 'my journey' post's. I have started a side-business reselling items from AliExpress. I have been casually selling these items through my Instagram in the past so I just decided to go all out and create a website to sell easier because I was getting tired of replying to DM's from people wanting to buy...just too cumbersome.
I won't say my product or niche just because I'm paranoid of losing my idea...call it paranoid or whatever, I'm just protective.
Anyways, I had about 1,000 followers on my Instagram page and recently launched my Shopify website on Nov. 18. I started out the next week running an Instagram ad set to $20/day. While that was running I started another Instagram ad for Black Friday and that budget was to only run 2 days at $40/day. Then another ad that was to only run 2 days for the Cyber Monday sales at $40/day. I stopped the $20/day advertising on Instagram just today because I wanted to get a few more things in line on my website before sinking more money into it for advertising. The ad's worked out seemingly well. The total amount spent on ad's was $314.61, Impressions was 124K, Clicks 587 and CPC $0.54. You can see my sales etc that's attached to this. I haven't done the exact numbers on the cost of product vs. revenue but I can assure it's prob around 40% profit.
My goal is to fine tweak my ads and website + build my Instagram page to eventually get to the $500/day goal. I'm prob at around $45/day. This is my first time really ever selling a product online and it's def been interesting. I know limited about CPC and Ads etc. So just like the posts you've probably seen lately (I just found out about them today while researching some info on here) you can make a lot of money purchasing on AliExpress and then reselling for more. I just need to find out what to tell my customers about the shitty turnaround time...I'm sure I'll come up with some sort of explanation. So I know it sounds vague, but just try and look through products on AliExpress that interest you and that you know about. Then see if you can't start some small business selling those items to like minded people like yourself for a profit. I've had a full out branding effort done on my website and also for my packaging. I have all the products shipped to me so I can remove the shitty Chinese packaging and repackage with my own custom branded company logo stuff for a very clean and exclusive feel. Sure I could make more just by shipping direct to a customer, but if I bought an item(s) for $60+ and it came (slowly) in crappy Chinese packaging...I'd be kind of annoyed honestly. On Shopify I'm using the $29/mo option and I'm also using the mail chimp and email template creator for my automated order emailings. I have outsourced my graphics too. So that all my website graphics look VERY clean and matching. My graphics guys gets the links I send him from AliExpress, removes the watermarks from the product photos, removes the background and adds drop shadows. Then I just upload the products, pics and variances. This is the worst part! SOoo time consuming!!!! But totally worth it when it's done because I'll be able to just let it sit and market it / casually update the products. I've already uploaded around 500 single products. This has all taken (everything I mentioned above) about a month and a half to launch and get to where I am now. It's so cool to be gone and then go check your email and some random ass person has made a $60 purchase on a product that costs me sometimes $6 (including shipping)! It's definitely VERY exciting to do and I hope I can update and remember to include some good specifics so everyone can read and maybe learn from. I've learned so much from this site myself. I posted my first little how to on another subject here: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...58-000-10-months-p-s-im-pretty-much-noob.html.
I'd love to chat with anyone who's doing shopify stuff and talk about strategies etc. Would love to hear from people on here that are killing it on Shopify too. I'm looking to get a few more things on my website in line and then begin to advertise on Instagram again.
I won't say my product or niche just because I'm paranoid of losing my idea...call it paranoid or whatever, I'm just protective.
Anyways, I had about 1,000 followers on my Instagram page and recently launched my Shopify website on Nov. 18. I started out the next week running an Instagram ad set to $20/day. While that was running I started another Instagram ad for Black Friday and that budget was to only run 2 days at $40/day. Then another ad that was to only run 2 days for the Cyber Monday sales at $40/day. I stopped the $20/day advertising on Instagram just today because I wanted to get a few more things in line on my website before sinking more money into it for advertising. The ad's worked out seemingly well. The total amount spent on ad's was $314.61, Impressions was 124K, Clicks 587 and CPC $0.54. You can see my sales etc that's attached to this. I haven't done the exact numbers on the cost of product vs. revenue but I can assure it's prob around 40% profit.
My goal is to fine tweak my ads and website + build my Instagram page to eventually get to the $500/day goal. I'm prob at around $45/day. This is my first time really ever selling a product online and it's def been interesting. I know limited about CPC and Ads etc. So just like the posts you've probably seen lately (I just found out about them today while researching some info on here) you can make a lot of money purchasing on AliExpress and then reselling for more. I just need to find out what to tell my customers about the shitty turnaround time...I'm sure I'll come up with some sort of explanation. So I know it sounds vague, but just try and look through products on AliExpress that interest you and that you know about. Then see if you can't start some small business selling those items to like minded people like yourself for a profit. I've had a full out branding effort done on my website and also for my packaging. I have all the products shipped to me so I can remove the shitty Chinese packaging and repackage with my own custom branded company logo stuff for a very clean and exclusive feel. Sure I could make more just by shipping direct to a customer, but if I bought an item(s) for $60+ and it came (slowly) in crappy Chinese packaging...I'd be kind of annoyed honestly. On Shopify I'm using the $29/mo option and I'm also using the mail chimp and email template creator for my automated order emailings. I have outsourced my graphics too. So that all my website graphics look VERY clean and matching. My graphics guys gets the links I send him from AliExpress, removes the watermarks from the product photos, removes the background and adds drop shadows. Then I just upload the products, pics and variances. This is the worst part! SOoo time consuming!!!! But totally worth it when it's done because I'll be able to just let it sit and market it / casually update the products. I've already uploaded around 500 single products. This has all taken (everything I mentioned above) about a month and a half to launch and get to where I am now. It's so cool to be gone and then go check your email and some random ass person has made a $60 purchase on a product that costs me sometimes $6 (including shipping)! It's definitely VERY exciting to do and I hope I can update and remember to include some good specifics so everyone can read and maybe learn from. I've learned so much from this site myself. I posted my first little how to on another subject here: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...58-000-10-months-p-s-im-pretty-much-noob.html.
I'd love to chat with anyone who's doing shopify stuff and talk about strategies etc. Would love to hear from people on here that are killing it on Shopify too. I'm looking to get a few more things on my website in line and then begin to advertise on Instagram again.
